Solid ink or phase change ink printers conventionally receive ink in a solid form, either as pellets or as ink sticks. A feed mechanism delivers the solid ink to a heater assembly, where the ink is melted into a liquid state for jetting onto a receiving medium.
Solid ink or phase change ink printers conventionally receive ink in a solid form and convert the ink to a liquid form for jetting onto a receiving medium. The printer receives the solid ink either as pellets or as ink sticks in a feed chute. With solid ink sticks, the solid ink sticks are either gravity fed or spring loaded through the feed chute toward a heater plate. The heater plate melts the solid ink into its liquid form. In a printer that receives solid ink sticks, the sticks are gravity fed or spring loaded along a feed channel and pressed against a heater plate to melt the solid ink into its liquid form. U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,402 for a Solid Ink Feed System, issued Mar. 31, 1998 to Rousseau et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,903 for an Ink Feed System, issued Jan. 19, 1999 to Crawford et al. describe exemplary systems for delivering solid ink sticks into a phase change ink printer.